Leopards, surfing, curry: A great Sri Lankan odyssey

Yala National Park, Sri Lanka – Though sightings aren't guaranteed, leopards are the top draw for tourists on safari at Yala National Park in Sri Lanka.

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Sri Lanka odyssey: Leopards, surfing, lots of curry12 photos

Poor camouflage – Yala is home to several Asian elephants, though herds are more common in nearby Udawalawe National Park.

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Who's the mug? – Yala National Park is home to the largest population of mugger crocodile in Asia.

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Not an African safari – Yala is in the semi-arid region of Sri Lanka, which receives rain primarily during the northeast monsoon (October-January). Spotting a leopard is more likely from June to August, during the dry season.

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Tsunami tragedy – Patanangala beach at Yala National Park was devastated by the December 2004 tsunami, which hit Yala at 9.20 a.m. A memorial on this beach honors the 47 people who died that day at the site. Around 200 more perished in the park's vicinity.

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Birder's paradise – The Green Bee-eater is one of the few birds brave enough to come close to safari jeeps.

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Back at camp – Slumming it at Kulu Safaris' campsite in the park's buffer zone of Kataragama. As a conservation measure, visitors aren't permitted to stay overnight in the park proper. This is as close as you can get.

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Sri Lankan curry – A feast of color, a Sri Lankan curry dinner has "endless options," says chef Sumit Batra, and is often only limited by the size of the table.

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The egg hopper – It's more curry for breakfast, but usually only one or two curry dishes served with string, plain or, in this case, egg hoppers -- seen here at Amangalle in Galle.

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Amanwella, Tangalle – Sunset across the pool at Amanwella in Tangalle. The 30-suite resort offers the best quality accommodations in the area and is justifiably in demand during the December to April peak season.

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Gorgeous beaches – Amanwella has its own 800-meter, crescent-shaped beach.

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Nilwella, aka Blue Bay Beach – A 10-minute drive from Amanwella, the beach at Nilwalla is perfect for families and beginner surfers. Like a lot of the great beaches and surf spots on the southern coast, it's rarely crowded.

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Story highlights

Leopards are the main draw at Yala National Park

Traditional Sri Lankan dinners have seemingly endless curry options

Like its tourism industry, Sri Lanka's surf scene is in its relative infancy

This piece, and several others on Sri Lanka, complement the CNNGo TV series. Starting in Sri Lanka's freshest seafood market and the renovated racecourse in Colombo, this month's CNNGo TV episode then ventures beyond the capital city to the seaside city of Galle and the tranquil tea farm-filled countryside. More on Sri Lanka plus the full show can be found here: www.cnn.com/cnngo

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"There is a good leopard population at Yala," Manjula said, "but it's hard to see them as they tend to want to keep away from us.

"I can't promise you'll see any on this safari."

Rack one up for the guide.

Rack up another for the leopard.

The cat's appearance temporarily silences the far-too-frequent coos from the couple sharing the 4WD with me.

They congratulate themselves over every bird we spot in Yala National Park.

That's a lot of congratulating.

Call me fussy, but unless a bird is remarkably colorful or remarkably massive or doing something massively colorful, I fail to get as interested as I probably should.

Lions, tigers, bears -- big stuff, that's what I want to see.

Even if they're just lying about scratching themselves.

Biodiversity hotspot

One of the biggest surprises of the day is the layout of Yala National Park.

Click to enlarge

Located about 300 kilometers southeast of Colombo, Yala is packed with dense scrub, bushes and forest broken up by watering holes and crisscrossed by sand and dirt roads that might render a lot of GPS systems useless.

Thank God for Manjula.

The park is divided into five blocks; three of them lack basic infrastructure for visitors and are under development.

The main block for visitors, Block 1, spans some 20,000 hectares.

Into this area Yala packs an impressive list of inhabitants.

These two are actually good mates.

There are no lions or tigers, but there are about 130 bird species (including six species endemic to Sri Lanka), as well as leopards, elephants, crocodiles, deer, mongoose, Macaque monkeys, wild buffalo and the sloth bear.

Other parks in Sri Lanka, such as the north-central Minneriya National Park, are better known for higher Asian elephant populations.

Elephant herds can also be seen at nearby Udawalawe National Park.

Yala gets its reputation for its leopards, something Javana Fernando, owner of Kulu Safaris, says is both good and bad.

"Our leopard subspecies is completely unique to Sri Lanka and marketing of the park is often too heavily focused on the leopard," he says, echoing the false warning Manjula had given us. "That means some visitors are disappointed if they don't see one.

"But the true value of Yala is the diversity. It is a biodiversity hotspot."

Eventually I begin reaching for the bird book to study the Ceylon Grey Hornbill and White-bellied Sea Eagle -- even this non-birder can be turned and that's saying something for the colorful birds here -- but it's the leopard that wins the day.

Soon after the leopard crosses our path -- on a section of road that resembles the parking lot at the end of a rodeo -- a traffic jam of 4WDs packed with clicking cameras forms.

Time to hand over our prime leopard-watching real estate to other safari goers.

The beast turns out to be the first of several we spot on the day. (For other highlights and more information on the park, see the gallery above.)

Sri Lankan curry is limited only by the size of the table.

Curry for breakfast, lunch and dinner

Back at the camp on the outskirts of the park, dinner is followed by a well timed gin and tonic that helps wash away the layer of park dust that has attached itself to our faces and throats like a bad souvenir.

Like the safari, Sri Lankan curry is highly photogenic, though considerably less dusty.

A Sri Lankan curry meal is a combination of many curries and dishes, which may or may not consist of plates of things like chicken black curry, prawn curry, lady's finger curry, dhal, beetroot curry, sambol rice and papadum.

Batra's employers run Amanwella in the fishing village of Tangalle on the south edge of the island.

The resort, 30 luxurious suites -- each with a plunge pool and terrace -- is the beach-side choice for accommodation.

About 90 minutes from Galle (to the west of Tangalle) and a similar distance from Yala to the east, it's a perfect location to either stick about or explore the coast.

Connecting all these spots are new smooth roads that make traveling (either in a rental car or by hiring a driver and car) and navigating traffic surprisingly easy -- quite a different experience from nearby countries like Myanmar, India, Thailand and Indonesia.

The southern edge of the island, between Galle and Tangalle, is full of beaches, good surf and at the right season, whale watching. (See CNNGo's Sri Lanka episode for more on whale watching.)

About a 15-minute drive inland from the Tangalle shoreline is Maya, a 19th-century manor house turned five-suite villa with a large garden that backs onto a rice paddy and is surrounded by forest.

While Amanwella has a private beach (and serves a private candlelit dinner on its beach), nearby Nilwella is more surf friendly.

With so many other beaches within reach, this bay is rarely crowded -- good news for uncoordinated and curry-induced flabby surfers.

Shallow and with little to no rip, it's great for beginners who like to stay closer to shore; advanced surfers paddle further out.

"Sri Lanka is a good destination for surfing, with many hidden surfing spots," says local surfing instructor Bandula Gardiyawasam.

"The temperature of the sea is ideal all year and there are no shark or jellyfish threats."

Diminutive and patient, Bandula, 40, began surfing in 1991 and describes himself as the first professional surfer in Tangalle.

"There is only one person who surfed in Tangalle before me and he was my teacher," he says. "Now he is too old."

Bandula recommends Cobra Point and U Point as top surf spots in Tangalle.

Further afield he lists Arugambay, Hikkaduwa, Mirissa and Medigama as must-surf spots.

Like the tourism industry, Sri Lanka's surf scene is in its relative infancy.

But with clean beaches, good transport infrastructure and few others to drop in on your wave, the coastline is gaining popularity not only as a surf destination but for its other natural offerings. And hey, even its bird life.

Getting there

Many international air arrivals and departures at Colombo's Bandaranaike International Airport come between 8 p.m. and 3:30 a.m. Sea planes from Colombo serve Tangalle.

If you're dealing with an inconvenient arrival time, you may want to spend one or two nights in the Galle upon arrival. The city's fort area is well worth a day at least.

Amanwella's sister hotel, the Amangalla, occupies the historic building that once housed the New Oriental Hotel in Galle Fort. The colonial-era building makes for an ideal base for exploring the 17th-century fort.